How to read a program sheet

Open a program to any training day and you get one page: the day's exercises in the order you do them, with numbers beside each. Five minutes of orientation covers the whole document, top to bottom.

The order and the numbers

Exercises run in the order you should do them. The big movements sit first, while you are fresh, and the smaller work follows. The order is part of the programming, so resist reshuffling it around a crowded gym floor.

Beside each exercise sits the prescription. Four sets of eight means four working sets of eight reps, counted after your ramp-up sets. Every working set also carries a printed rest and an effort target.

The sheet prints rest because rest is part of the dose. Three minutes between squat sets and ninety seconds between curls are both deliberate calls, and cutting them short changes the session you are running.

What the symbols mean

A few conventions appear across all the program sheets. Once you recognise them, every new page reads the same way.

Sets x Reps. Written as 4x8, meaning four sets of eight reps. The first number is always sets, the second is always reps. A rep range like 4x8-10 means each set targets eight to ten reps: hit ten when you can, and eight is the floor before you drop the weight.

Rest. Printed in seconds or minutes beside the set prescription. "Rest 90s" means ninety seconds between sets. "Rest 2-3 min" means two to three minutes, left to your judgment within that window. Longer rest appears on heavier compound lifts. Shorter rest appears on isolation work and supersets.

RIR and RPE. RIR stands for reps in reserve: the number of honest reps you could have done beyond the ones you did. RIR 2 means you stopped two reps short of failure. RPE is the same idea on a ten-point scale, where RPE 8 equals RIR 2. The programs use RIR because it reads more directly.

Supersets. Exercises paired together are marked with matching letters: A1 and A2, or B1 and B2. Do A1, rest the prescribed time, do A2, rest again, and repeat until all sets of both are done. The pairing saves time by working different muscles during what would otherwise be dead rest. A superset of bench press (A1) and barbell row (A2) lets the chest recover while the back works.

Warm-up sets vs working sets

The prescription on the page counts working sets only. Warm-up sets, also called ramp sets, come before the first working set and are not listed in the rep scheme. If the page says 4x8, those four sets begin after you have ramped up to the working weight.

Ramp sets start light and add weight in jumps until you reach the load you will use for the prescribed work. Their purpose is to warm the muscle, rehearse the movement pattern, and prepare the joints for load. The warm-up article walks through the full ramp process with a worked example.

A common mistake is counting ramp sets as part of the prescription. If the page says 4x8 and you count two ramp sets in those four, you trained two working sets instead of four. The numbers on the page start at the working weight.

Two reps in reserve

Effort targets appear as reps in reserve, printed as RIR. A set at RIR 2 ends when you could complete two more reps with honest form, and no more than two. The target prints effort instead of load, so it travels with you on the days the weight has to come down.

Judging RIR takes practice. Most people underestimate how many reps they have left, which means their RIR 2 is closer to RIR 4 or 5. The hard set article covers how to calibrate your effort gauge over the first few weeks.

When to deviate

Three situations come up where the page says one thing and the gym says another.

You cannot hit the prescribed weight. Drop the load by about ten percent and do the reps. Write down what happened beside the prescription: the weight you used, the reps you got, and any note about why (poor sleep, long day, came in cold). One session below target is information. The next session, try the original number again. If it fails twice in a row, the load was set too high. Adjust the working weight down and rebuild from there.

A machine or station is taken. Swap for the closest alternative that matches the movement pattern. A barbell bench press can become a dumbbell bench press. A lat pulldown can become a cable row or a band-assisted pull-up. Keep the same grip orientation and the same muscle group. Write down what you swapped so you can track it over the weeks.

An exercise causes pain. Pain during a rep, not effort or a hard stretch, is a reason to stop that exercise for the day. Substitute the closest pain-free alternative and note it on the page. If the same exercise causes pain two sessions in a row, flag it and see someone qualified. Do not push through sharp or worsening pain to honour the page.

This week's page

Every session is its own page, and the numbers move as the weeks go on. Week seven's leg day prints different numbers from week one's, which is the point of following a written program at all. Work from the day in front of you rather than from memory of a fortnight ago.

Where your pen comes in

Some days you will miss the printed numbers. Write down what happened beside the prescription, the weight you managed and the reps you got, then take the next session as written. One flat day is information, and rewriting the week around it is panic.

Write your actuals on the page on the good days too. Twelve weeks of scrawled numbers beside printed targets is a record of what you did and the best guide to what you should run next.

Not sure which program to start with? The program quiz asks about your goal, equipment and schedule, then matches you to one from the catalogue.